It’s probably not nice of me to be reminded of my mom when I see this picture, but there you are.
Considering the amount of times I Can Has Cheezburger has managed to make me laugh out loud lately, I am considering making up an extra category for their pictures. I still have trouble deciphering their atrocious grammar at times, but that is probably just me being picky again. 
I just received an email from Doug Rice, the guy who runs the Josh Ritter website I mentioned in my last post. Apparently he liked what I wrote about Josh and offered me free tickets to one of the shows on his current tour.
Now, quite apart from me being amazed that he actually bothered to read my post at all (it’s not like I’m an a-list blogger after all), how fucking awesome is that? Never in a hundred years would I have expected anything like that and I just sat here staring at my computer screen for a couple of minutes, completely flabbergasted.
And then, after I had looked outside and seen the 10 inches of snow, which would make driving to Groningen hell, I went and checked the train times (the next train to Groningen goes around 3.30 p.m., which would make me way too late for the show tonight) and then Ryanair for tickets to London (going for around 250 Euros right now).
Finally, after I had bit into my desk in frustration, I answered Doug’s email, telling him I was unable to take him up on his generous offer…
I don’t know what to feel right now. On the one hand, I am giddy about being offered free tickets to a kick-ass show (I’m sure for some people that would not be much of a big deal, because it happens to them all the time, but as I said, I live in the middle of friggin’ nowhere and this is hands down the best thing I ever got offered for free), but obviously I’m also broken-hearted that I don’t get to go. Ah well, it sure would have been nice, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Now please excuse me, while I go and bang my head on the wall in despair…
The above is a quote from one of the songs of Josh Ritter. And I’m completely, absolutely in love with the guy! In a completely platonic way, but still…
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but you can actually fall in love with someone just by listening to him sing. I know, because I just did.
Just ignore Letterman and listen to this song. Isn’t this guy just incredible?
Before one of his songs was included on the House Soundtrack I had never heard of Josh Ritter. (Yes, I do live in a cave.) When I heard that song, though, I knew I had to check out what else the guy has done. And what can I say? Blown away doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I downloaded his last 3 CDs and I have been listening to them ever since. They are from start to finish incredible - and, believe me, it’s a very rare occurence to hear me saying something like that!
His voice is not perfect, but it’s … real, for want of a better word. Actually, he reminds me a bit of Bruce Springsteen in that regard (he even covered one of my favorite songs of his - brilliantly, I might add). He sings with so much feeling and such sincerity that I couldn’t help falling for him. And that was before I ever saw him. I’d be hard pressed to say which song is my favorite, they are all so very good. And that’s not even counting the sometimes wacky lyrics, which are fantastic as well.
From the live album I listened to it sounds like his concerts are quite the party. He seems to really bond with his audience and even without seeing him I could hear that he has an amazing presence on stage. As luck would have it, he is just touring Europe. Tomorrow he does the last concert in the Netherlands, then he goes to the UK and does a couple of shows there before finishing off the tour back home in the US.
Now, there’s no way I can afford to fly to London or Leeds on such short notice, but I could drive to Groningen tomorrow… It’s only about 600 km after all. And even though I couldn’t find out how much the tickets are, at least it looks like the show is not completely sold out.
I could say this was providential timing, but of course in reality I can’t afford to drive all the way to the Netherlands just for a concert, either. The gas alone would come to more than 120 Euros. So I guess, for now I’m stuck with listening to the CDs and hoping he’ll do another tour next year. Ah crap, being a responsible grown-up really sucks sometimes! 
But instead I did have some fun checking out everything I could find about the guy online. Not only did he turn out to be quite cute, he also has got a beautiful website. With links that grow little flowers when you move the cursor over them. Sweet. And you can download quite a few of his songs for free, how nice is that?
Then there’s a special fansite, where you can listen to his song “Good Man” - which featured on House - and also download the mp3. For free. 
But wait, there’s more! Also on the fansite, there’s a page where you can download almost the complete setlist of a show he did at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles last March - just him and his acoustic guitar all alone on stage. Gave me goosebumps. He’s amazing. Have I mentioned how much in love I am with his voice?
And here you can listen to all the tracks of his newest album “The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter”. Do yourself a favour and check it out (especially “To the dogs or whoever” and “Rumors”)!
The man really is awfully generous with his music. I hope there are enough people left who actually buy the CDs. I for one definitely will. You won’t hear that from me often, but some music is actually worth paying money for.
Talk about life being unfair and cruel.
Apparently Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite authors and a man with one of the most amazingly creative imaginations out there, is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. I could hardly believe it when I just read that on the BTT blog.
I hate the thought that the man who invented a whole new world for millions of people to enjoy, might someday soon not be able to remember his own name anymore. That’s just wrong.
Pratchett himself donated £ 500,000 to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust last week, which has triggered a fan campaign to follow suit with donations of their own, aptly named Match It For Pratchett.
It is nice to see at least some good come from such bad news.
The way fans immediately rallied for this cause reminds me of the Can’t Stop The Serenity screenings that the Whedonverse does to support Joss Whedon’s favorite charity.
Only in Pratchett’s case the cause for this campaign is so much sadder.
I hope they will reach their goal, and of course I have contributed right away. Maybe I’ll wish for one of the t-shirts for my birthday next month.
I have just (finally) got around to updating my permalink structure to the proper format.
Yes, I am aware that it is a stupid idea to do that more than one year into the life of a blog, because all the outside links to this blog now went wonky within the blink of an eye - and I’ll let that be a lesson to me with my next blog, but I did it anyway. (Because, you know, to learn from your mistakes you first have to make some. So, there.)
I have just watched the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful, moving, funny and lovely movie ever.
“Juno” is every bit as great and fantastic as everybody is saying. Just wow. How ever many Oscars it received - it would definitely have deserved a couple more. And that is high praise, coming from me, who is normally not in the least moved by the thought of babies or pregnancy or any of that stuff.
Watching a 16-year-old goofy kid dealing with an unwanted pregnancy is usually not exactly my idea of fun. But then again, this movie is not exactly the usual kind of movie, either. The first time I read about it was the review on Pajiba.com. Often, as much as I love to read their bitchy reviews, I don’t agree with their opinions of the movies. But this time they were spot-on. So go on over there and read it, it’s better than anything I could write.
There really should be more films like this. (Wait, maybe there are and I just don’t know them? Do you?) Oh, and Ellen Page is lovely. Can’t wait to see more of her.
I am absolutely in love with this film. If you haven’t seen it: go and watch it, you’ll thank me later.
After having sold some stuff on ebay recently (as part of my ongoing uncluttering mission) I fooled around a bit today and ended up looking for laptop bags.
The one I’m using at the moment is not really big enough and besides, it is a shoulder bag. Now I’m not a big fan of shoulder bags anyway, but if I have to lug around a 5-pound laptop plus several accessories I definitely want a backpack.
The problem is most of those laptop backpacks look exactly the same, i.e. boring. They are black with some grey, or grey with some black, or black with some blue, or… well, you get the picture. They are just damn boring.
So it took me a while to find anything even remotely interesting, but now there’s another problem: I have found 2 that I like. And I can’t decide which one I like more. This sucks, because obviously, for monetary and clutter-related reasons, I can only buy one.
So I need a little help here, guys. Which one looks better?
I think they both look nice. They are both pretty much the same size, weight and material. They both have 2 big compartments and several little ones, so fitting everything in shouldn’t be a problem. The green one has an interestingly curved form, but the white one has an extra rain cover (not that I will ever willingly walk around in the rain for hours with my laptop on my back, but it could happen, right?). But the white one looks pretty much the same as the old backpack I am using every day (which, sadly, doesn’t have any kind of padding fit for laptop transport). So I guess the green one would be something else for a change.
Gahhh, did I mention that I hate having to make decisions?
The one bad thing about getting stuff like that through an ebay auction is that I can’t order several different ones and try them and then only keep the one I like best, like I could do when ordering them from Amazon, for instance. So, what if the green one looks better, but feels like crap when I am actually carrying it on my back?
Well, I guess then I will just have to sell it again and try the other one. *sigh*
So, which one shall I get?
